Chương 102: CHAPTER 100 – The City of Algae

"I'll start by sending the data to Dielmon. The Frequency of this place is slowly losing stability." Monica got up from the stool, squeezing the water accumulated in the piece of her swimsuit on her chest. Her hair was plastered to her damp shoulders as she stared, smiling at Maliard, busy filleting the fish caught earlier.

"Just as I thought, the sand samples I collected contain scattered traces of Lambdite." With a swift movement of the blade, Maliard separated the fillets, placing them on the sizzling griddle. Monica breathed in the aroma, licking her lip.

"You've improved, you know. Is that thanks to Lance's influence?" Maliard snorted, without taking his eyes off the iron.

"And even if it were?" His stern tone didn't match the faint smile on his sun-kissed face.

"There's more warmth on the freezing island since those two arrived." Monica shook her head like a pendulum, watching the blue sea. A memory surfaced in her eyes, a scene now gone: a woman with bluish hair slipped into the water while still holding her black boots in her hands. Next to her, a boy was trying to lift her while laughing and shaking his head.

"I love you, Monica, Maliard. You made me really happy!" Monica felt a strange beat in her heart, an emotion like a need. The vision faded, and she felt the need to look at her brother. Without saying a word, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Maliard turned sharply, ignoring the drops of boiling oil that fell on the back of his hand.

"What's that for?" He received no answer, only a caress on the head and her smiling face. She sighed and left the small gazebo of branches and leaves.

"Just a thank you for being my brother!" She stared him straight in the eyes, fixing her damp hair. Maliard continued to stare at her, confused, now setting the utensils on the wood.

"Don't look at me like I'm a stranger! I just felt the need to tell you… Honestly, I couldn't remember the last time I said it to you." She smiled before turning away.

"Monica…" Maliard murmured as she waved goodbye and headed to the house.

"I should have been more selfish, right?" Maliard lowered his gaze, returning to prepare lunch.

"I love you too, sister." He whispered, wiping his eye. In the distance, Lance was being thrown into the water by Jeanne, while Noel and Hoku tried to drown each other far from the beach. Maliard watched that scene, silently massaging his cheek. The sound of sizzling fat muffled the laughter, accompanied by the sinking of his mind. In all his life, he had never seen the sea with his family.

"Vim, go get your brother! If that dog comes back empty-handed again…" These were the words reaching his ear from beyond the window fogged by rain. He clutched a small hoard of coins wrapped in a worn leather pouch. The girl with dark hair and green eyes nodded, putting on a hole-ridden coat. She didn't keep him waiting and let herself be found in front of the door. The memory shifted, leaving only an echo.

"Well done, Maliard!" Now only the sound of machine guns and bombs. A metallic smell of dubious origin and the screams, the certain screams of the victims of the great war. In that horror lay the origin of the only memory he had of his mother smiling.

"Vim, Mum! Mum is…" That little boy's words died in his throat. At dawn he cried, the next too, and the one after that. Only one morning, after a night of nightmares, the tears no longer flowed. The only thing that kept him from despair had already died. Back to the present, he felt a pang in his arm. He was unharmed, but it hadn't always been so.

"Hurt people will end up hurting more people. It's just a change of who holds the handle." He grabbed the plates, slicing vegetables and meat into nearly uniform portions.

"Were you really happy when you got rid of me?" Maliard closed his eyes as the image of his mother materialized, then shook his head and pressed the silver bell. Despite its small size, the ring spread forcefully and quickly through the air, drawing attention.

"IF YOU LEAVE A CRUMB, I'LL LEAVE YOU ASHORE!" He shouted while preparing the chairs for lunch. Everyone sat down laughing, while he put his greenish shirt back on. Jeanne and Noel inspected their portions, vaguely larger than normal.

"Are you sure you'll finish it? Isn't it hot?" Noel smiled, moving his plate away from Jeanne. She did the same, moving closer to Lance's elbow.

"I-I could say the same." They both kept moving away, while both Maliard and Lance seemed perfectly coordinated: with one movement they removed the skin and with another cut the bite.

"Your recipe isn't bad at all! I remembered the taste of this fish being much more bitter." Monica smiled, happy to have left only the skin on her plate.

"I got some advice from Lance. Apparently, not breaking the innards and treating the fillets with citrus and vinegar helps." He smiled, silently cutting the bright red fillet.

"Experience helps! I've eaten really unpleasant things in my life." His expression furrowed as he reluctantly put the meat in his mouth. The fillets disappeared quickly, while various strips of skin piled up on Noel's and Jeanne's plates.

"You know, both NOIR commanders loved the sea. This island had already been mapped many years ago and hasn't changed at all." Monica smiled, tracing the line of the sunny horizon with her finger. The sea foam mixed with the coloured sand, creating multicoloured vortices in its wake before disappearing. Maliard nodded, swallowing the red juice in his glass.

"Everyone loves the sea, in my opinion. No matter how much you say you hate it, you still end up enjoying yourself." Hoku smiled, elegantly placing his cutlery parallel to the plate. Monica nodded, smiling, while behind her, the strangely warm wind stirred the vegetation.

"I agree, yet this is only the second time I've seen it up close. Lucas took me there after we moved from the North." Arte smiled, adjusting her large straw hat on her white forehead. Curious, Jeanne stared at her face, attentively and in total silence.

"It's true, you really have Northern features." Jeanne smiled, pointing at her vaguely glossy and pale eyes of a pale yellowish colour. Noel cleared his throat, mumbling something. Hoku snorted, clapping his hands.

"Enlighten us, go on…" Noel smiled, brushing the sand from his nose.

"Actually, Arte isn't from Northest or Termìe, but from one of the small states near the empire. Perhaps from the Uhrmacher line, since it's the most extensive." Monica furrowed her brows, trying to remember the past.

"When Arte was brought to us by Lucas, she was already an adult, and I was the commander. She's the youngest member, along with Hoku and Noel, excluding you two, of course." Arte smiled, lightly covering her lip with her hand.

"I'm just a little older than you, but I'm an incomplete Meta, as Lucas says, so my development is considered an unknown variable." She took off her hat, showing her hair white as clouds and the pale colour of her skin. She laid it on her legs and resumed speaking after a long breath.

"I don't remember much of my life, but I'm sure it had something to do with clocks. There was an old watchmaker who cared about me, at least I have this vague feeling. Lucas said that part of my hippocampus was burned by the Lambdite." She touched her forehead, running her worn nail over it several times.

"If it consoles you, I don't remember almost anything either…" Lance smiled, pointing his thumb at his chin.

"Thanks, but I already knew that…" Lance let out a quick "AH" from his mouth while everyone looked away to avoid laughing. Arte apologised hastily, gently patting his shoulder as she blushed.

"But Monica, you've never told us the reasons for Lucas's long trips. What was he doing so far from the archipelago?" Noel asked, gulping down a pitcher of water gathered from the greenish berries scattered among the bushes.

"Lucas is the only member who maintains, or rather maintained, relations with Albert. Although I'm at the top, he only rarely sends me reports on the political situation of the other states and the evolution of singularities." Maliard snorted at the name of that woman, while Monica smiled.

"Albert is cold and inhospitable, but in terms of ability she's certainly at the level of Lucas and Monica. After all, she is the first Verwinder in the entire association. I wouldn't be surprised if she has currently reached the Herrscher classification." Lance's expression furrowed as he stared at Maliard, who, after a few moments, resumed speaking." Obscuritas, or rather the Unnamed, was sealed only thanks to her. However, her ability stole her left arm to allow that.

Honestly, she's a monster who could hold her own even against Grayson and Malcolm, but unfortunately we know too little about her since she only spoke openly with Noir and Bluette." Lance discarded various ideas from his head, then relaxed his shoulders.

"None of us has ever seen her. We don't even know what her voice sounds like!" Noel joked, getting up from the table to put his plate away. The sphere in his mechanical hand rotated, simulating a wrist.

"Is there any news about her ability?" Lance asked, focusing on a remnant of sauce on the blue rim of his plate. Monica shook her head, raising her hands. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"Albert and Lucas have some kind of secret agreement. The only thing that can be understood from the specifications in her file is that, as motivation, her core extended like a film between her meninges, making it almost autonomous. What it actually does… I don't know." Maliard smiled, sticking out her tongue. Maliard immediately pinched her on the cheek.

"But one question… Why does the Unnamed have other titles too? Shouldn't it be erased?" The innocent question that escaped Jeanne's mouth immediately changed the atmosphere. Monica tried to answer, but stammered repeatedly.

"Simply because for some reason… It's impossible to erase. All the titles have little to do with that thing, but for various reasons it became an illness. Something that cannot be understood and is always there, even when it shouldn't be." He got up from the table, taking with him Monica, slightly pale and trembling despite her smile.

"Some things should remain buried… Forever." Arte smiled, also getting up to collect the leftovers. Suddenly the sand vibrated, shaking the entire island. The grains danced, hopping from side to side. The receiver began to spin, flashing repeatedly. Everyone turned toward the horizon, now unsettlingly grey. The sky frayed, taking the shape of dark, imposing filaments.

"The singularity has expanded!" Immediately, everyone pressed the designs on their swimsuits. The Frequency was consumed, extending the swimsuit into a thicker uniform covered in thick scale-like plates on the joints and chest. The light was reflected from the violet surface, illuminating the grey atmosphere.

"Let's go! Hopefully it's more enjoyable than the one in Sector II." Noel grabbed one of Hoku's globes mid-air, quickly transforming it into his trusty Sazerac. The engine of the sharp mechanical chain emitted a shrill whistle as his mechanical hand also transformed into a strange spike. Sai smiled, drawing his own blade.

"The island is in the middle of nowhere, but there are trade routes nearby. I won't tolerate mistakes!" Maliard and Monica advanced first, heading to the boat. The others followed, adjusting their suits.

"Don't abuse Lachesi." Jeanne whispered, passing the boy quickly. Lance nodded, stroking his bracelet. Noel pushed the boat into the sea, while everyone climbed aboard from the sides at a run.

"Arte, we're waiting for you!" Monica called, noticing only a heavy armour lying in the sand: it was dark, heavy, cumbersome, and full of valves and vents. It waved its arm, then fell back to the ground. Everyone slapped their faces.

"Lucas and Maverick… You've had a century to live for, and this is the most sane idea you could muster up?" With a gesture, Monica signalled Noel to go get her. He hoisted her onto his shoulders and loaded her onto the ship's deck, removing her helmet and gloves.

"Now… I can… steer it…" The diver muttered, groping toward the helm. The ship departed, with not a few complications, toward the black, churning sea. An acid and macabre smell filled the dark air, while the ship was tossed from all sides. Jeanne looked at herself in the dark water, searching for her reflection. Suddenly, as if from the depths, a stain of violet light emerged. Lance noticed it, immediately manifesting Abbondius's crosses.

"Arm yourselves!" The ship was thrown into the air as the sea split open. A dark vortex, seemingly infinite to the eye, opened the waters, revealing a grotesque and grim mass. Tentacles, comparable to columns of flesh and marine bodies, shot toward the sky. Dozens of mouths and small, sharp extremities appeared on the bluish skin.

"Okay, this is definitely worse than expected." Hoku murmured, leaning out to observe the mass at the centre of the vortex: a mushy creature, composed of dozens of marine beings and pierced by hundreds of violet, luminous crystals. The eyes were arranged irregularly on the body's surface, surrounded by circular mouths. In its full extension, it could be compared to a small island. In that terrifying display, only one thing surpassed the others in horror.

"That's a person!" Noel pointed at a violet, translucent capsule with a human body inside, wrapped by numerous tentacles. While everyone watched the scene, disgusted, one of the tentacles tried to coil around the boat. A burst of flames repelled it, while Arte put her hands back on the helm, now manoeuvring along a water path that had appeared in the storm.

"I'll hold the course! You find a way to kill it!" With a single gesture of her hand, the boat was engulfed in flames. The beast let out a scream equal to a boom as its flesh was charred.

"Noel, keep the beast at bay while I find an angle!" Arte violently pressed a button on the control panel, triggering an opening on the deck. Immediately, a colossal firearm emerged, supported by silver pedestals: bronze, with numerous pipes full of reddish liquid and a quadripartite front barrel, connected to a rotating cylinder. Noel smiled, unhooking the bandolier of crimson-tipped spikes. He stomped hard on the ship, making it tremble as he aimed at the various tentacles emerging from the depths.

"You have to strike while the iron is hot, right?" A hail of incandescent darts embedded itself in the beast, which promptly began to thrash and shake the water. The flesh that fell into the vortex recomposed immediately, altering its grotesque form with each cycle.

"Hoku, Lance, and Jeanne with me!" Monica dived from the ship, followed by Lance and Hoku, both armed with their respective weapons. Jeanne followed, grabbing mid-air the chain of cylinders full of paint. She also threw herself from the boat, wielding her scythe. Just before touching the water, she opened the first iron tube, completely freezing the sea. With a sudden movement, she slashed two of the beast's extremities, making black liquid rain down.

Dark patches soaked the vortex, vanishing into the depths, while Lance dismembered piece after piece of the flesh masses.

"This isn't working. It just becomes more resistant with every cut!" Hoku jumped onto the remains of a tentacle, noticing the rotten, swollen flesh constantly expanding beneath his feet. Lance grabbed onto one of the mouths, manifesting his glasses on his face. To his eyes, the Frequency became clearer, visible as a flow of screams and bodies, all directed toward that humanoid figure. He immediately removed them, covering his mouth from nausea.

His head began to spin violently in that situation, trapped in that display of otherworldly rot. He tightened his grip on his weapon, trying to shake off the nausea.

"So that's what happens when I use them in an open singularity…" Without time to recover, Lance spat out the next retch and shouted at the top of his lungs to Monica. He pointed the iron cross toward the beast's head, shouting.

"BREAK THE CASING!" Monica nodded, immediately clashing her iron knuckles together. From the mechanical extremities emerged a river of bluish sparks, enveloping her in the salty steam of the grim water. The colour of her hair lightened for an instant and disappeared, leaving in its place a violent rift in the sea. In the blink of an eye, black slime began to rain down.

"Disgusting…" Monica murmured, shaking the remains of the beast's body from her fingers. The impact had completely opened the creature's skull cap, exposing the remains of hearts pierced by crystal bones. The chrysalis with the human inside had opened in the process, vomiting the remains of a skeleton in formation, with abyssal features: multiple pairs of lungs growing from the shoulder blades, along with a strange bladder, connected to gills on the neck. With a rattle, it stretched its webbed hands toward her.

"I'm not very good with animals." She smiled, swiftly dodging the creature's claw. Noel and Lance saw the target, immediately loading the weapon. Lachesi vomited out the revolver, which ended up right between his fingers. With a violent slash, he severed the tentacle he was standing on, launching himself into the air. On the boat, the last spikes were loaded into the weapon.

"Noel, move!" Maliard shouted, freezing tentacle after tentacle, while strange creatures with shells dirty with algae besieged the ship.

"This thing was designed to be used stationary! NOT WHILE I'M CARRYING IT AROUND!" He pulled the trigger with all his strength, releasing the rain of incandescent iron. Simultaneously, Lance detonated the bullet. The shockwave shattered the rain around him, while the shot shattered the lashes of foam and blood emerging from the vortex. The beast turned to notice him, before being annihilated by the barrage. A gigantic wave rose from the collapse of the corpse, sending the ship skyward and the rest into the water.

The sky returned to a normal tone, while the water began to calm. The flesh remains began to decompose and become a crystalline mist. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when suddenly they realised the ship was still in the air. Maliard, Noel, and Arte clung on as they fell. Jeanne and Lance resurfaced, barely holding their weapons. Without saying a word, she grabbed the paint tube and threw it into the air.

"Shoot it!" Lance struck the container squarely, releasing a large white patch. It spread over the water like tar, without mixing. When the ship impacted, it bounced, submerging only partially.

"Next time… Give us a warning." Arte almost fainted along the side of the vessel, clutching her stomach and throat. Maliard raised a thumb to the two, as he sat in the water.

"EXCELLENT RESULT!" Monica smiled, climbing aboard with Hoku and Jeanne. She turned to reach her hand toward Lance, noticing he was stuck in the paint.

"I'm so sorry!" Jeanne immediately stretched out her hand, while Lance gurgled under the white film, with only his eyes visible. He too reached out his fingers, mumbling some excuse, when a shiver ran down his back. He kicked the ship away as he was wrapped by dozens of small tentacles.

"Shit!" Hoku immediately dove to help him, but he was already gone.

"The singularity collapsed! Why the hell is an instance still alive?!" Maliard immediately opened his watch, tracking Lance. Before vanishing from the screen, the signal was already in the depths.

"Why always me…" Lance thrashed, as he held the beast's jaws from biting his neck. What he was fighting was a mass of disconnected flesh and organs, only instinct in its skull. It tried to pierce the boy with its claws when one of the crosses sprang from Lachesi, amputating its limb. He struck its throat with an elbow, taking the opportunity to free himself from the tentacles.

"It's all dark… The Frequency here is intense." The creature vanished into nothing, moving in the darkness. Lance grabbed Supplicium once more, moving his fingers in the icy water. The glasses reappeared on his face, while everything fell silent.

"Got you!" Lance turned sharply, piercing the mouth with the barrel of the weapon. He raised two fingers, almost in prayer, and pulled the trigger. The creature's head was completely disintegrated. The body, however, remained intact, beginning to form a very rapid vortex.

"Great, a collapse…" He looked around, but wherever he turned his gaze, he saw only the bathyal darkness. His body began to feel the crushing pressure, aching in his head and legs. The remains of the beast swirled and swelled, while he shook his head in all directions. Suddenly, a reddish light appeared before him.

"Is this a game card? Why is it here?" Lance reached out his hand toward the old playing card. It was ruined, but strangely intact. He recognised the game, imported from the north, famous in nightclubs. A black, opaque card, with a red, veined heart at its centre. Perhaps it was the darkness, but Lance could swear he saw it pulsing and spurting blood. He touched it, and it vanished, just before an eruption of Frequency split the sea.

He reopened his reddened and stinging eyes, taking a breath of stale, nauseating air. The smell of death and rot filled his nostrils as he spat out the brackish water.

"And now where am I?" He looked around, finding himself in a corridor inhabited by dozens of species of multicoloured algae, bound to the walls. He turned his head and, above a skeleton with a missing jaw and pierced ribs, he saw a rusted, yellowish sign.

"GOVERNMENT BASE, ADAL STATION - OKEANOS"